Curse

Crazy Carl · Jun 06, 2005, 10:19 PM // 22:19

I've been playing a R/N for some time and I've finally decided on Poison and DoT as my focus for this character in PvP.

So as for skills I'm considering...

Poison Arrow
Hunter's Shot
Serpent's Quickness / Quickening Zephyr
Read the Wind / Favorable Winds
Barbed Trap
Troll Unguent
Whirling Defense
Resurrection Signet / Melandru's Arrows

Possible substitutes:
Enfeeble / Enfeebling Blood
Parasitic Bond
Storm Chaser
Other /N skills...?

The idea currently is to place poison / bleeding on as many enemies as possible rather than focus on dealing massive damage to a single one at a time. I plan to take advantage of the fact that rangers are not a high-priority target in PvP and 'perch' the battlefield with a longbow, wearing the other team's healing efforts thin. Defense? Against other rangers, Whirling Defense and Troll Unguent are almost surely adequate in my opinion. Versus melee characters and warriors, I plan to sit on a barbed trap and run, making it futile/frustrating to attempt to engage me in melee. Though pets tend to throw a wrench in any trap setup, I don't expect to see a lot of them in late-game PvP. Besides, Barbed trap is lovely when used around choke points, or as a 'safe zone' for the party's casters to regroup at.

As for the poisoning method, it depends if I bring the spirits or not. On one hand, bringing the spirits would mean that using the preparation 'Apply Poison' and then Hunter's Shot gives me the potential to bleed + poison a target, as well as gain a bit of added damage too. If I use Read the Wind, a preparation, then the only option is Poison Arrow.

Another limiting factor is the presence of another elite skill. If I use Melandru's Arrows, then I'm stuck with Apply Poison for poison damage.

There's a lot of trade-off, and I'm not sure how/if I should integrate some necromancer skills into the build. I like the aoe debuffs, which are highly useful in many situations PvP and PvE, but I'm not sure if they'll be useful enough to have in a PvP build.

Anyway, there weren't any threads on the subject and I figured some sage advice from veteran rangers could point me in the right direction. I probably have a lot of naieve misconceptions, since I haven't actually tried what I'm describing, due to simply not having the skills yet.

Yukito Kunisaki · Jun 06, 2005, 11:25 PM // 23:25

Hmm, I see Curses skills in there. That's my favorite Necromancer magic tree.

Faintheartedness affects everyone though people won't admit it. On casters, it's still a 2-3 pip degen hex if you have 9+ curses in your build.

Enfeeble>Enfeebling Blood, that's just my opinion since I never deal with mobbing in pvp too much.

Soul Barbs might work though I think it's casting cost is high. [I'm usually warrior]. If they try to enchant your target, whap, if u/teammates hex them, whap.

Plenty of toys from Necromancer to play with.

I might suggest Spiteful Spirit as due to the new updates, it now truely hurts anyone.

Crazy Carl · Jun 07, 2005, 12:27 AM // 00:27

I agree that Enfeeble owns blood in non-mop situations... in PvP, I don't usually count on being able to get several PCs nearby one another. Plus it costs less.

I'm trying to keep spell cost on the Necro side <= 10.

I don't think I'll be using Spiteful Spirit or Soul Barbs. Too much setup, too much focus on one target. The object is to be able to spread degen around to multiple targets from a safe perch. Poison / bleed.

Crazy Carl · Jun 10, 2005, 03:14 AM // 03:14

*bumps* It's been a while since there's been a post,and it fell back to the 2nd page. I haven't really gotten any good feedback, so I figured it was worth a bump.